Microsoft cries foul on Yahoo!-Google Japan deal

Microsoft will try to stop Yahoo! from hooking up with Google in Japan.

Bing daddy Microsoft told The Reg it will object to Yahoo! Japan's alliance with Google, announced this week, in a presentation to Japan's Fair Trade Commission.

A Microsoft spokesperson said: "We plan to present evidence to the Japanese FTC explaining why we believe that this deal is substantially more harmful to competition than Google’s deal with Yahoo in 2008 that the DOJ found to be illegal."

Microsoft toldAll-About-Microsoft's Mary-Jo Foley a tie up would give Google virtually 100 per cent of all searches in the country and deliver control of all personal searches by consumers and business to the internet's biggest search and ads company.

Earlier this week, Yahoo! Japan said it will switch to Google's search engine from the one it had developed and would use online advertising and distribution from Google.

It's a mirror of the agreement between Microsoft and Yahoo! elsewhere in the world, where Yahoo!'s search and ads platform is being lifted out and Microsoft's Bing is being slotted in. The switch-over is due for completion during September and October.

Yahoo! Japan isn't a fully owned extension of Yahoo! US. Japanese phone and internet service provider Softbank has a 40 per cent stake in the operation with Yahoo! on 30 per cent.

Yahoo! Japan has around 50 per cent of all searches in Japan, with Google on 45 per cent and Microsoft in single digits. ®